When Car Plants Die, Planes May Crash
General Motors has announced it is closing the Doraville Plant.
While this is good news for investors, it’s impact on Atlanta will be as big and bad as a Hummer. There are a number of losers. First are the workers, their families, and all the suppliers who helped the plant run. Second is Dekalb County, which will see a loss of tax base. There will also need to be negotiations over what to do with the property. Finding another company that would like to manufacture products here would be ideal, but if that cannot happen, perhaps Georgia Perimeter College might relocate a campus so that it’s much nearer a MARTA station.
The biggest loser, however, is likely to be Peachtree Dekalb Airport. For years, airport supporters have pointed out that the airport is an important economic engine for the county and has been vital in getting parts and people to the GM facility. With the facility gone, one of the most obvious and tangible examples of its importance vanishes. The airport remains a vital county resource and has been around since World War II, yet many people want it removed completely. Ironically, all of these folks bought their property long after the airport was there. Still, the Doraville plant’s closing will add hearten those who want the airport to close.
The Doraville plant closure also brings forth a major test for County CEO Vernon Jones. If he can get out front on this issue and create a plan that will allow the county, business, the City of Doraville, and the populace that lives there to benefit from the conversion of the auto plant, he could lay the groundwork for a future run for larger office or as major business player. If he does nothing, Jones will have failed and voters all over the state will remember.
November 21st, 2005 at 7:36 pm
The problem with PDK is that they no longer adhere to the regulations governing the size and number of aircraft permitted to land. Dekalb county government (and sleaze ball Vernon Jones) refuse to release the records on PDK even though they’re public. The entire thing is a fiasco and our corrupt elected officials are doing nothing to help.
November 21st, 2005 at 8:34 pm
I live in Doraville, and if the GM plant closing negatively affects PDK Airport, I doubt many of my neighbors will be too disappointed (by that aspect of the closing, anyway).
I don’t know what’s going to happen when the plant closes, but this is potentially a big opportunity for the city & for North Dekalb county. The land it sits on has been largely industrial for half a century. At this point, though, I am not convinced that an industrial plant is the best use of the land: it is at an important junction of several freeways and highways and also sits adjacent to a MARTA station. I hope that Doraville & Dekalb county don’t blow this!
November 22nd, 2005 at 11:29 am
In the long run, the closing of the plant will be a overall bonus for Doraville and Dekalb County. An Atlantic Station type development there will produce far more economic activity than another plant of some sort.
The workers will be the losers however. The County needs to help get these folks trained for other jobs.
November 22nd, 2005 at 11:32 am
I think it’s sad that all of these people are losing their jobs, especially around the holidays. Maybe with the big tourism push in Atlanta, more jobs will be created.
November 22nd, 2005 at 3:15 pm
Well, the plant’s going to be open through 2008, so I think that the workers should have some time to make plans about what they want to do in the next phases of their career.
Doraville’s mayor has apparently been talking about getting a Japanese auto maker in the Doraville facility. Personally, I don’t see this happening, because the land (and wages) costs so much now.
I agree with DG that an Atlantic Station-type development would be the most beneficial for the city (or at least for my property values), but it’ll take a lot to get something like that off the ground. I’m not certain that the city/county leaders are up to it.
November 24th, 2005 at 9:51 am
The real losers are the GM employees. Most of the assembly line workers were making good salaries comparable to many college graduates, when in fact their level of higher education was minimal. I would assume some of the older workers are not even high school graduates.
Why were these employees so generously compensated? One word– UNIONS. If it were not for the courageous and valiant efforts of American unions, American workers would have a reduced standard of living–A WAL-MART STANDARD OF LIVING.
Fortune 500 companies loathe unions, and for good reason. Paying workers higher salaries may reduce top management’s salaries a million or two a year.
Republicans tend to be anti-union, and workers are being shafted in the process. American workers can essentially kiss their pensions goodbye. If you’re counting on a pension, let’s just say you better be clipping more coupons out of the newspaper.
General Motors, the company itself, really deserves bankruptcy. What company deserves to stay in business when they’ve been hatching out ugly cars for over a decade, and the quality is mediocre at best?
I’ve got two suggestions with the demise of the GM plant:
1. Tear the plant down and add an additional 10 lanes to I-285. Exiting Peachtree Industrial Blvd. on to I-285 is a nightmare, and a lot of the conjestion would be eliminated with 20 lanes.
2. Wal-Mart can build a super store at the plant site. Former GM employees would be on cloud nine working for Wal-Mart. Excellent salaries–$50,000 to $75,000 range and superior health insurance benefits. Cough! Cough! It’s very unfortunate that a Wal-Mart super store is currently being built on Ashford-Dunwoody, because the GM plant in Doraville would have saved Wal-Mart millions of dollars. More money in the Walton’s bank accounts would be supporting the anti-union movement. So sad!!!!!!
Chad
November 25th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
The biggest loosers after the workers is not PDK and the County is not the entity that will save the day. The plant comprises more than one-third of the tax base of the City of Doraville. There are over three hundred buisnesses that depend on the plant, so the total impact still isn’t known. Sleazeball Jones wont even pay the cities the money DeKalb County owes them under an intergovernmental agreement for capital projects, don’t count on him to help Doraville. This will be a challenge that Mayor Jenkins and others in Doraville must meet or the city will likely die.
November 27th, 2006 at 1:54 am
http://decaonline.tripod.com/Pages/Minutes/4-25-02.pdf
April 25, 2002
DECA Quarterly Meeting Minutes
• Vernon Jones (DeKalb County CEO):
Can you update us on ACOD (Airport Compatibility Overlay District)?
It is not even being discussed and was never an agenda item for a Commission meeting (may have been on the Planning Commission agenda; he will apologize if he is wrong about that); there will have to be a number of public hearings before it goes any further.
The airport brings in over $3 million/year, much of which goes to the schools and City of Chamblee.
The Commissioners will NOT vote to expand the airport.
Planes coming in after the volunteer curfew (11 pm) is a federal issue; planes over 75,000 pounds have to call in for permission to land.